News
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Images of South African township life exhibited for first time in 50 years
For the first time in 50 years an extraordinary collection of photographs by Bryan Heseltine will go on show at the Pitt Rivers Museum from 19 July 2011 to 8 January 2012.
The images featured in People Apart: Cape Town Survey 1952 offer a glimpse into the lives of South Africans who would feel the full force of the apartheid state through the 1950s and beyond.
The carefully composed images depict aspects of social and cultural life, including the work of street craftsmen, beer brewing, music and dance. They illustrate the diversity of Cape Town’s inhabitants, the mix of established town dwellers and those recent arrivals making the transition between country and city.
“The collection includes some remarkably intimate portraits that go beyond the depiction of racial types typical of the period and reflect the photographer’s engagement with his subjects.” Darren Newbury, Professor of Photography at Birmingham City University.
The exhibition also draws attention to the history of the images themselves and how they were taken up, first by the South African Institute of Race Relations and later, in England, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
Underlying the project is also the question of what it means for both British and South African audiences to look at the images now, in the post-apartheid era.
